1. Field of Invention
This invention generally relates to a hollow-metallic stringed musical instrument body and a method of making a metal stringed musical instrument body. For descriptive purposes the invention relates the construction of a guitar body but this is not intended to limit the scope of the invention for it can apply to any stringed musical instrument body such as violins, dulcimers, mandolins, basses, etc.
2. Related Art
Over the centuries designers of stringed musical instruments have experimented with the shape, size, and materials of construction for bodies for stringed musical instruments. This has led to the familiar sounds produced by violins, guitars, cellos and basses. The sound each of each being determined by the design characteristics.
Wood has been the material of choice to produce these instruments. The choicest of wood cuts encompassing all varieties of woods, (such as spruce, maple, basswood, rosewood, etc), have been used to obtain the highest quality of tone and pitch within each class of instrument. The manufacturers of these instruments are continually striving to produce the sound desired by the player and audience.
Unfortunately wood suffers from many distinct disadvantages which result in defects and undesirable tonal variations. These variations result from changes in the wood due to environmental conditions, the most prominent being temperature and humidity. These parameters can result in the swelling or shrinking of the wood resulting in unwanted tonal variations.
Fluctuations from wood lot to wood lot can also affect the final instrument body. These fluctuations include differing grain patterns and wood densities between trees. Differing techniques in cutting and drying procedures between mills also contribute to lot differences. Other shortcomings in wood are imperfections such as cracks and checks.
These disadvantages have led to the development of alternative materials of construction for stringed instrument bodies. These include U.S. Pat. No. 4,364,990, disclosing an invention for a graphite fiber/epoxy resin body and U.S. Pat. No. 5,905,219, describing a stringed musical instrument body constructed from polyurethane. These inventions resolve several of the problems associated with wood, but produce a sound unique to their construction which may or may not be desirable to the listening ear.
Although innovative, none of the above mentioned efforts to develop an alternative construction material for stringed instruments offer the sound and flexibility of the present invention. A metal body eliminates many of the problems associated with variation problems in wood lots and shortcomings of wood itself since metal stock is produced following strict quality control procedures.
The production method of this invention allows for near exact reproduction of the body. This ensures replication of the tonal qualities of the instrument body from instrument to instrument overcoming the tonal variations associated with wood.
The draw back to an all-metal guitar body is the weight of the metal. Excessive weight results in an undesirable product. This drawback has also been overcome with the present invention.